Student reflection

What I feel I did well when filming

7th October - On this day we went to get some conceptual footage for our video. This meant that wee went to Essex record labels car park as we needed to get water from the river to put into the bath. I feel that I worked well as a team player to sort out the resources needed as I was in charge of getting the water from the river to the bath, a very wet task... Also I took one for the team and got in the bath, A job only myself and James manned up to!

30th October - On this day we got another conceptual shot of James walking to the camera whilst a girl stood in front of it. I feel that I did well here as I thought of the shot to portray the sinister theme in the video.

14th October - We needed to get another shot of Steve drumming on this day. I worked especially well here as when I took on the role of recording I remembered the advice from Jake Wynne on how to get effective tracking shots. We therefore used a wheeled chair and pushed it back and forth with myself sitting on it.

18th November - On this day we went to get shots of bottles smashing, so we could put them into slow motion in our video. I worked well here as I came up with different types of shot angles to capture the best footage possible

Even better if

On each of the filming days I feel that I could have helped more with ideas. As a lot of the time I left it down to Will to decide what types of shots we would get. Also we suffered from the battery's to the cameras running out a lot due to my lazy self not checking to see if they we charged. Therefore obviously I would need to ensure they were charged if I were to improve on my filming qualities.

Website Evidence

James was in charge of making the website for our band. It includes details such as tour dates, information on the band, a gallery and the social media links

Risk assessment

Here is the risk assessment for our second shoot

Music Video Ideas

As we carry on to film our video we are requiring more and more ideas. We each searched for more ideas and Will found Jake Bugg's video 'Two Fingers' which had short focus shots which meant the mike stand was in focus but the performer is blurred. Will felt this was would be a good shot to use as it maintains a mystery as to who the performer is.

 

Magazine planning

Today I was in charge of making a magazine article for our band. For this I looked at NME Radar as a template and then printed an example off and labeled every feature in it:

1. Red Title
2. Editors name
3. Subtitles
4. Name and publication dates
5. Information about the bands, including facts
6. Photo of the band

Improved logo

After hearing the feedback on our first logo draft, I made some improvements to satisfy everyone. I made sure that our name was clearly shown on the logo so everyone would be be able to tell who we were. I also made sure that our emblem of the 'N' was stated clearly in the middle of the logo, as this is what is going to draw the attention of the viewer.

Logo - first draft feedback

This is the first draft logo for our band 'No Individual'. We showed it to our fellow peers and and gathered feedback from it.

Positives:

• Simple and effective
• The Indie genre is extremely apparent 
• Clever how the I molds into the N
• Good use of font, typical Indie font

Negatives:

• The I is grainy on the edges
• From far away it just looks like the letter 'N'
• The band is too small to just have initials as the logo as people won't necessarily know who you are
• Not very imaginative 

No Individual Logo research

For our logo we wanted it to be simple yet effective. We didn't want to show our whole name in the logo but enable the viewer to know that the logo says 'No Individual'. The way I got around this was to look for Indie Band logos. I found this one from 'Lix - records'. They have used their initials as the logo and I feel this would work for us too. As well as finding this logo I found that most Indie bands logos were in black and white, like 'The Arctic Monkeys' and 'The 1975'.

Digipack Research

As we are doing a concept music video with a mix of performance as well we don't want to show the band on the front cover however we could be seen on the inside sleeve. We got ideas from 'The 1975' as their digipack's don't show the band but are basic and interesting to look at, something we are going to aim for.

Reverse shot research

We were really keen as a group to get a reverse shot in our video. For this we had to think of a shot that would work well in slow motion as well as reverse. We felt that a breaking glass bottle filled with water would look good as the disbursing water would have a good effect in reverse as well as the smashing glass. We also thought as well as a bottle, an egg could look good as the shell fragments would have a good effect coming back together in reverse.

Music Video research

We had an idea of filming under water using a Go Pro but we were unsure of how to get successful shots without them looking amateur. In order to overcome this I looked up music videos that were filmed underwater and found the song 'Runnin' by Naughty Boy. We liked the idea of a lifeless body just floating around in the water, as well as a close up of the face.

River filming photos

Here is a collection of photos of the filming we done in the River Wid. It proved challenging as faced many problems such as setting up the equipment in a strong stream without it falling over. Getting power was a struggle as it required us to get a generator, and carrying this down a muddy slope proved hard!

Costume Research

As a group we thought of many ideas for our costumes. We wanted to all be in the same outfits but have something slightly different about each outfit to distinguish each individual in the group. Our first thoughts were to get each person in suits grey suits but change the colour of the shirts however we felt this would cost too much money and wouldn't be obvious enough. We then thought of boiler suits and ordered three different boiler suits in red, white and blue. The reason we got these colours was to highlight the fact that we are an upcoming British band.

Story Board evidence

Here is images of our story board in progress. It has enabled us to follow a plan for our next shoot as we found it challenging to film without one in our previous shoot. The story board is half way through being finished and we look to film next week.

Mood board

This mood board is filled with images that we would like to get into our music video. For example we would like to get shots of someone bathing in a bath of blood and we're extremely keen to use masks.

Social Media Presence

No Individual is now up on Twitter, tweeting exciting posts informing our followers how the shoot to the music video is going, showing behind the scene images of the shots.

Risk Assessment

Here is the risk assessment for our filming.

Jake Wynne Feedback

After hearing our ideas Jake gave us some feedback as to what he thought about our ideas:

• Implement a structure for our video rather than putting in loads of random footage and shots
• Add more footage of a performance element
• Make sure the video has some form of pattern to ensure that the audience understand the video

Top Tips from Pete Fraiser

After sharing our ideas with Pete he gave us some feedback as to what he thought about it:

• Plan for everything - In order to give ourselves the best chance in creating a successful music video he told us to ensure that all our shots are put on a storyboard, props are listed, cameras are charged and to stay in contact with everyone in the group to ensure everyone knows what their roles are.
• Know your equipment - Before shooting the shots, take test shots to make sure that you are aware of what your camera can do to use it too its full effect. 
• Over shooting - You can never get enough shots so make sure that you use the most of your filming time as you only have the cameras for a certain amount of time
• The edit - Look to edit the whole performance rather than focusing on tiny details throughout the video and upload rough copies of your editing to get feedback so you can improve it if needed.
• Look elsewhere for tips - Use different blogs and websites to obtain different ideas that you feel would be suitable for your work.

A day With Pete Fraiser and Jake Wynne

On Friday Pete Fraiser, who is the chief examiner for OCR A level media, and Jake Wynne, who is a music and film director and editor, came into school to share their experiences in viewing and making music videos. We were shown videos that Jake had made and how he went about making them whilst Pete shared with us his experience in examining student videos and what gains you marks. The videos Jake showed us started off as small budget which was more realistic to us as it showed us how we could make an effective music video with little money.

Shooting Schedule

First shoot - 7th October 2015

• What we want to achieve - Shots of James and Ben in the bath of blood - Conceptual 
• High shots of James bathing in the blood lasting for 3 seconds
• Mid shots of Ben spitting the water out of the bath over the camera lasting for 2 seconds
• Tracking close up of James holding a beer bottle out of the bath lasting for 3 seconds
• Long shot of James smashing a beer bottle against a lamp lasting for 2 seconds
• Long shot of Ben singing whilst getting bloody water poured over him lasting for 5 seconds
• Mid, high shot of Ben on the floor whilst bloody water is poured over him

Second Shoot - 13th October 2015

• What we want to achieve - Shots of the band performing in the river Wid in Widford - Performance 
• Long shot of the band performing lasting for 5 seconds
• Long, panning high shot of the band performing lasting for 2 seconds
• Long shot of the bands equipment set up in the river lasting for 5 seconds 
• Long shot of the band standing together acting natural lasting for 3 seconds
• Long shot of the band walking through a field, getting closer to the camera lasting for 4 seconds
• Mid shot of the band walking in the river away from the camera lasting for 5 seconds
• Close up of each of the band member performing in the river

Third Shoot - 15th October 2015

• What we want to achieve - Shots of James floating in a swimming pool - Conceptual 
• Low shot of James floating above the camera, lasting for 3 seconds
• Close up of James underwater looking directly into the camera lasting for 2 seconds
• Close up of James screaming under water again looking directly into the camera lasting for 2 seconds
• Mid shot of James singing underwater looking into the camera lasting for 2 second

Fourth Shoot - 19th October 2015

• What we want to achieve - Shots of each band member singing the entire song - Performance
• Close up of James singing the whole song into the camera  
• Close up of Ben singing the whole song into the camera 
• Close up of Steve singing the whole song into the camera 

Fifth Shoot - 30th October 2015

• What we want to achieve - A shot of James walking to the camera whilst a girl stood in front of the camera - Conceptual 
• Long shot of James walking to the camera whilst Aimee stood in front of it, making James look like a stalker, lasting for 4 seconds 

Sixth Shoot - 6th August 2015

• What we want to achieve - A shot of Ben looking into the camera a light moves around his face 
• Close up of Ben looking directly into the camera whilst a light moves around his face making it seem as if his face is changing, creating a sinister look, lasting for 5 seconds

Seventh Shoot - 12th August - 2015

• What we want to achieve - James singing the song whilst lying down in the middle of the road - Performance
• Long shot of James laying down in the middle of the road lasting for 4 seconds

Eight Shoot - 14th August - 2015

• What we want to achieve  - shots of Steve drumming in a field
• Panning, mid shot of Steve drumming lasting for 2 seconds
• Tracking, mid shot of Steve drumming lasting for 3 seconds
• Close to long shot of Steve drumming lasting for 5 seconds 
• Long to close up shot of Steve drumming lasting for 4 seconds

Ninth Shoot - 17th November - 2015

• Various shots of the band in a local park - Narrative and Conceptual
• Low shot of the band walking over the camera lasting for 4 seconds
• Long shot of the band walking past the camera lasting for 4 seconds
• Close up, underwater shot of James stepping into the water, lasting for 3 seconds
• Long, panning shot of the band standing in the middle of the park, lasting for 3 seconds

Tenth Shoot - 18th November - 2015

• Various shots of bottles smashing - Conceptual 
• High shot of bottle dropping and smashing, lasting for 2 seconds
• Close up of bottle smashing in front of the camera lasting for 2 seconds
• Long shot of a rock being thrown and smashing a bottle lasting for 4 seconds

Music Video Pictures